While the cacique and his leaders were with Cortes they chanced to hear the Spanish horses neigh. Thereupon the terrified Indians anxiously inquired what was the matter with these frightful beings, meaning the horses. They were told that they were angry because the cacique and his people had not been punished more severely for their audacity in attacking the Christians. The instant they heard this they hurried off and brought various kinds of game to appease them. They meekly implored forgiveness and promised they would faithfully submit to the Christians in the future.
Their confidence was soon displayed. Spanish knick-knacks were exchanged for the raw products of the country, such as food of all kinds, woollen goods, and golden ornaments. When the natives were asked where the precious metal came from, they pointed westward and replied, “Kulhua,” “Mexico.” It was at once decided to leave the country and proceed to the land of gold. Before they left, Cortes displayed his solicitude for their conversion. He called their attention to the great doctrines of Christianity, and sought to persuade them to abandon heathenish practices. As the Indians offered but little objection, the conversion ceremony began on Palm Sunday. The whole army, with a priest at its head, moved in solemn procession through the blooming fields, surrounded by thousands of Indians, to the principal temple, in which the image of the heathen divinity had been removed from the altar and displaced by the image of Christ. The priest conducted the mass, the soldiers sang, the natives listened in deep silence and were moved to tears. Their hearts were filled with reverence for the divinity of those beings who seemed to control the thunder and lightning with their hands.
After the ceremony was concluded the soldiers bade farewell to their Indian friends, and a few hours afterward the little fleet was on its way to the gold coast of Mexico.
Chapter IV
Cortes Reaches San Juan de Ulloa—His Negotiations for an Understanding with Montezuma, Emperor of Mexico—Disquiet in the Army
Cortes, satisfied with the fortunate outcome of a struggle which might have had most disastrous consequences, and full of hope for similar good fortune in his future undertakings, left Tabasco. A favoring east wind filled the swelling sails, and the course was westward. On this voyage Cortes visited all those places where Grijalva had been before him. At last he reached the island of San Juan de Ulloa, which Grijalva had visited, and came to anchor between the island and mainland. They had not been there long before they saw two large and long canoes approaching them from shore. The Indians in them seemed to be of some importance and were apparently apprehensive of danger, but Cortes received them on board in a friendly manner. They began to speak, and Cortes awaited an explanation of their visit, but they spoke a language which Aguilar, his interpreter, did not understand. They talked in Mexican, but he had learned only Yucatanish—an entirely different tongue.
In the meantime Cortes to his great delight observed that the slave Marina of Tabasco was conversing with some of the Indians and found that this person, who had been born in a Mexican province and been kidnapped, and taken to Yucatan, could speak the language of both countries with equal facility. Marina spoke with them in her own dialect, communicating what they said to Aguilar in Yucatanish, who in turn spoke to Cortes in Spanish. By this fortunate occurrence Cortes learned that Pilpatoe, the governor of that country, and Teutile, the great Emperor Montezuma’s general, had sent these Indians to ascertain his object in coming and to offer him assistance in continuing his journey, should he need it. Their appearance showed them to be a very different people from those wild tribes of the West Indies before encountered. Cortes recognized the difference immediately and replied in a cordial way that he had come with the friendly purpose of bringing tidings to their ruler which would prove of great importance. He dismissed them with gifts and, without waiting for a reply, began sending his people, horses, cannon, and war material to land. The hospitable natives submitted, hastened to lend helping hands to their future oppressors, and set up straw huts for them. Unfortunates! If some friendly spirit could have revealed the future to them and shown them how dearly they would have to pay for this friendly service, how they would have recoiled from these wolves in sheep’s clothing! How they would have put forth all their strength and joyfully spent the last drop of blood to drive these dangerous strangers from their shores!
On the following day Pilpatoe and Teutile appeared in person with a numerous retinue of armed Mexicans. Their appearance was imposing as befitted the majesty of their great sovereign. Cortes also displayed as much pomp as his circumstances permitted, to impress them with his own importance and that of the sovereign he represented. He ordered his troops to march at his side with military precision and in respectful silence, and received the Mexican officers with a display of dignity which deeply impressed them. Upon being asked who had commissioned him, he haughtily replied with intentional brevity that he came in the name of Charles of Austria, the great and powerful monarch of the East, who had entrusted him with a message to the Emperor Montezuma that could only be delivered in person. He desired therefore that he should be conducted to him.
Ferdinand, the Catholic, who ruled over Spain in the time of Columbus, had no sons, but left a daughter, named Joanna, who married Philip, an Austrian prince. A son was born to them, named Charles, and it is he who is mentioned above. When Ferdinand died, Charles, whose father was no longer living, became heir to his crown. He was also sovereign of the Netherlands, which had come into his possession a year previously. Later he was chosen German Emperor and thus became one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe. As four princes by the name of Charles had occupied the throne before him, he was designated Charles the Fifth.
The Mexicans were much embarrassed by the resolute declaration of Cortes. They knew that his determination to have a personal interview with their Emperor would be extremely disagreeable to the latter. Montezuma had been greatly disturbed at the first appearance of Europeans on the Mexican coast. There was an old saying in his country that a mighty people dwelt toward the east, who sooner or later would attack and overthrow the Mexican Empire. How this saying originated it is not easy to say, but it is certain that the superstitious Mexicans, and Montezuma himself, were terrified by the old prophecy as soon as the Europeans appeared. This was also the reason why Montezuma’s ambassadors were so disturbed when Cortes demanded the interview. Meanwhile, before making a reply to his demand, they sought to win his favor with gifts, among them ten bales of fine woollens, exquisite feather cloaks, whose beautiful and delicate colors rivalled the finest paintings, and a willow basket filled with gold ornaments. Cortes expressed his gratitude for the gifts, which emboldened them to tell him such an interview would be impossible. To their intense astonishment Cortes, with a sinister and angry expression of face, interrupted them by declaring that he could not return to the great monarch, whose representative he was, without carrying out his object. That was more than they had expected and all they could do was to request Cortes to have patience until they could acquaint Montezuma with his purpose and receive his reply. Cortes assented to this and sent gifts to the Emperor. These consisted of a richly carved and colored arm-chair, a head covering having a gold medallion with the image of St. George and the dragon on it, a quantity of necklaces and bracelets and ornaments of cut glass, which, in that country where they had no glass, was regarded by the Mexicans as a precious stone.
Upon this occasion also several painters attached to the Mexican retinue made drawings upon white cotton of the most remarkable European objects they observed. Learning that these drawings were to be sent to the Emperor, Cortes decided to offer the artists still more interesting subjects that would be likely to make a deep impression upon Montezuma. He drew up his entire force in battle array and displayed before the astonished Mexicans a realistic picture of a battle conducted in the European manner. The spectators were so overcome with astonishment and awe that some of them fled, others in a dazed condition threw themselves upon the earth, while the rest fancied that what they saw and heard was a game for their diversion. The artists now had an opportunity to use their pencils in depicting the fearful and destructive effect of European warfare. They worked with trembling hands, and when their pictures were finished, they were sent with the other gifts by swift runners to the Emperor. In that country they had swift runners on all the principal roads leading from the most distant provinces to the capital, ready at any moment to convey intelligence of all that was transpiring at any place.